Church Authority Ends At Door

There is no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church is well within its realm of authority to encourage certain practices among its members, and forbid or strongly discourage other practices. However, when the church takes it upon itself to embark on efforts to prevent non-Catholics from obtaining legal services that they desire, that constitutes intolerable intrusion, and should be halted immediately.

The majority of Connecticut citizens support allowing the terminally ill completely voluntary access to physician-prescribed end-of-life medication. Given some of the issues one would assume are at the forefront of the Catholic Church, certainly church leaders can find some better use of their money and time than to lobby for obstructing the passage of a law that would give Connecticut's citizens this option. That end-of-life freedom of choice should be an example of Catholic care for the suffering.